L’Automobile Ventura: Brazil’s Little-Known Sports Car with Big Ambitions

Hidden Ambition - Car history is often told through big names and mass-produced icons, yet some of the most fascinating stories come from machines built far from the global spotlight. In the late twentieth century, Brazil quietly became a laboratory for inventive, small-scale sports cars that blended ambition with practicality. One of the most intriguing results of that era was the L’Automobile Ventura, a car that still prompts the question many enthusiasts ask today: had you ever seen one before? 

The L'Automobile Ventura was developed in São Paulo by L’Automobile Distribuidora de Veículos Ltda, a Brazilian grassroots manufacturer. (Picture from: Silodrome)

The Ventura was developed in São Paulo by L’Automobile Distribuidora de Veículos Ltda, a grassroots manufacturer founded in 1976 by Claudio Campuzzano and Guillermo Pardo. After finding early success with a fiberglass replica of the 1931 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 built on Volkswagen underpinnings, the team chose a very different direction for their next project. Instead of revisiting the past, they aimed to create a forward-looking sports car that felt modern for the late 1970s, while remaining affordable and relatively simple to build. The solution was to retain widely available Brazilian-made Volkswagen running gear and wrap it in a completely new fiberglass body. 

The L’Automobile Ventura retained widely available Brazilian-made Volkswagen running gear, pairing it with an entirely new fiberglass body. (Picture from: Silodrome)

Visually, the L’Automobile Ventura stood apart from the humble VW models it was based on. Its low-slung profile, clean lines, and contemporary proportions reflected mid-1970s design thinking rather than retro nostalgia. The fiberglass body, promoted by the company as a unibody-style construction, helped keep weight down and manufacturing costs manageable. Inside, the Ventura was surprisingly well equipped for a small Brazilian sports car of its time, offering roll-up windows, seating for two, a padded dashboard, full interior panels, carpeting, three-point seatbelts, and even practical touches like a rear-view mirror, windshield wipers, and a front trunk with usable storage space. 

The L’Automobile Ventura offered a well-equipped cabin for its time, with roll-up windows, two seats, carpeting, a padded dash, and three-point seatbelts. (Picture from: Silodrome)

Buyers could tailor the car further with optional features that felt genuinely upscale in its segment. Electric windows, air conditioning, and an AM/FM cassette stereo system with multiple speakers were all available, along with a range of wheel and tire choices. This mix of everyday usability and sporty intent was central to the Ventura’s character. It was designed to feel more refined and contemporary than standard Volkswagens, without straying into exotic or unattainable territory. 

The L’Automobile Ventura was offered in two primary versions: the SLE with a 1.6-liter air-cooled Volkswagen flat-four and the RS with a 1.6-liter liquid-cooled engine from the VW Passat TS. (Picture from: Silodrome)

The Ventura officially debuted in 1978 and was offered in two primary versions. The SLE used a familiar 1.6-liter air-cooled Volkswagen flat-four, while the more performance-oriented RS adopted a liquid-cooled 1.6-liter engine sourced from the VW Passat TS. Production continued through the 1980s, and in 1984 the car received a facelift along with the introduction of a convertible variant. Around the same time, a 1.8-liter air-cooled engine option appeared, eventually becoming standard by 1986. With around 84 horsepower, these later cars were claimed to reach up to 185 km/h, a figure that has since sparked debate among enthusiasts given the modest output and four-speed VW transaxle. 

The L’Automobile Ventura was designed to feel more refined and contemporary than standard Volkswagens, without straying into exotic or unattainable territory. (Picture from: Silodrome)

Over its roughly ten-year production run, which came to an end in 1988, the L’Automobile Ventura consistently occupied a niche position within Brazil’s growing sports car scene. It was offered both as a fully assembled, factory-built vehicle and as a kit car, a flexible approach that appealed to hands-on enthusiasts who could complete the build themselves in a surprisingly short timeframe. While the majority of Venturas remained on Brazilian roads, a small number of kits were exported to markets such as Germany, Argentina, and the United States, where limited distribution and modest sales figures ultimately kept the model largely unknown outside its country of origin. | F4vZWJlePmo |

Today, the Ventura’s rarity outside its home country only deepens its sense of intrigue and appeal among collectors and enthusiasts who value the unusual. It serves as a quiet reminder that meaningful automotive innovation does not always emerge from large, well-funded manufacturers, and that even in overlooked corners of the global car industry, bold ideas, creative engineering, and local ambition can still leave a lasting impression over time. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | SILODROME | UNDISCOVEREDCLASSICS | AUTOEVOLUTION ]

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